Shanghai, China, June 6, 2019- Enflame Tech, a company that focuses on neural network solutions in artificial intelligence field, announced that it has completed its new round of financing of RMB 300 million, led by Redpoint China Ventures and participated by Oceanpine Capital, Yun He Capital, Tencent, Rong Hui Capital and China Equity Group (in no particular order). Yun He Capital became the only investment company that participated in the seed round, Pre-A round and this round of financing. The fund raised in this round will be used for market expansion, business development, product mass production, technical support, and the development of subsequent series of products.
Driven by the development of computing power, algorithms, and big data technology, artificial intelligence technology and applications are rapidly developing. With the geometric growth of the data generated by various application scenarios and rapidly iteration of artificial intelligence, computing power has become a bottleneck in technology development and market expansion. In particular, artificial intelligence model training in cloud data centers requires a more cost-effective solution customized for artificial intelligence algorithm and applications.
Enflame's products are a series of artificial intelligence training chips and software, which are used in cloud data center and especially built for general artificial intelligence training platforms. At the same time, based on the open source ecosystem and tool chain, Ebara's products provide customization and optimization for different application scenarios, creating higher value for customers.
Enflame Tech CEO Lidong Zhao claimed, "We focus on cloud data centers and target the market demand and problem. Our products are highly competitive in terms of performance, cost-effective and energy efficiency etc., with applicable product versatility and scalability. Our products can provide customers with complete and differentiated solutions."
Enflame Tech COO Yaling Zhang said, "Enflame's excellent software and hardware R&D team has devoted years of development and practical experience to the R&D process of our first product, thereby ensuring the reliability, the computing power architecture versatility, the system structure scalability and the ecosystem diversity of this cloud training acceleration chip."
Wenda Yuan, the founding partner of Redpoint China Ventures, believes, "AI chips could potentially grow into a market worth more than 100 billion RMB in the foreseeable future. 2019 is generally regarded as the year of commercialization of artificial intelligence, and AI chip is one of the essential elements in this field. Redpoint China, as an early-stage fund driven by technological innovation, must deploy and has a position in this influential area. The founding members of Enflame are all veteran in this field, they dedicate to the Chinese and US markets for many years and have a deep understanding of market and industry demand. What’s more, they have solid technology development capability. We are very pleased to be the lead investor in this round. We have great confidence in the development of Enflame Tech."
"As the world's leading AI application market, it is necessary and also able for China to grow its local AI chip company, especially in the high-end application field of cloud data centers," said Liguang Chen, Managing Partner at Oceanpine Capital, "Enflame has a world-level excellent hardware and software R&D team, with the years of R&D and management experience in China and United States. We are very happy to invest into this market and this company which have such a huge potential. We will firmly support Enflame in its further development with our years of experience, capital and resources."
Yun Zhao, Founder and Chairman of Yunhe Capital, said, "With professional research and deep resource accumulation, Yunhe Capital is committed to investing and helping small and medium enterprises based on strategic emerging industries to improve their independent innovation capacity building. We are optimistic about the 100 billion smart computing market that Enflame has positioned, its team's excellent large-chip industrial design capabilities, and the founder's ambitions. Yunhe capital will continue to do our utmost to support Enflame and firmly believe that Enflame will become one of the core driving forces for the development of China's AI chip industry."
Shengxuan Huang, MD of Riverhead Capital Investment Management Co. Ltd, said, "Enflame Tech was born in the golden age of the development of China's AI and IC industry. We value the profound experience of the founding team of Enflame Tech in the industry and firmly believe that its strong cloud computing power will help the AI industry flourish. We look forward to continuing the close cooperation between Enflame Tech and Sunshine Insurance in the AI field."
"As one of the global innovation highlands for artificial intelligence, China needs to have its own competitiveness in the underlying technology of AI," said Dan Chen, Executive President and Senior Partner of China Equity Group, "Enflame Tech is a company with great potential in this field. It has a first-class, integrated R&D team and profound industry experience. Adhering to the concept of value investment and focusing on long-term scientific and technological innovation, we are happy to work with Enflame Tech to contribute to China's hard technology and high-end chips."
Source: Oceanpine Capital
